Bulletins »
The UPC in numbers – June 2023 to December 2024
The Unified Patent Court (UPC) has recently released its latest update on the case load of the Court* since it commenced operations in June 2023.
In the intervening period the Court of First Instance (CFI) has now heard a total of 635 cases, up from 503 cases in October 2024. Some key takeaways from the lifespan of the UPC are highlighted below.
Infringement actions: 239 cases filed before the CFI have been infringement actions. These have been heard across a variety of local divisions across Europe, with the majority in Germany (81 in Munich, 51 in Dusseldorf, 32 in Mannheim and 20 in Hamburg). Paris (14 actions), Milan (a significant increase up to 13 actions) and the Hague (12 actions) have continued to see steady use while the Nordic Baltic regional division (seven actions) Brussels (two) and Helsinki, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Paris central (one each) have seen smaller change since October.
Counterclaims: 251 counterclaims for revocation have been filed with the Court’s local and regional divisions. As previously reported, this might be a slightly misleading figure as the counterclaims for revocation come from 132 individual infringement actions.
Types of actions: Infringement actions continue to be the most common use-case for the court. Of the 239 heard so far, 132 have been with a counterclaim for revocation and 107 without counterclaim. The Court of First Instance has received 62 applications for provisional measures. Stand-alone Revocation actions have been heard 55 times, with 40 revocation actions heard in Paris Central, eight in Munich and seven in Milan Central Division – more than doubling the total heard in the latter since October 2024.
Language: English remains the most commonly-used language for the court, being the language of 53% of cases, with 39% of cases being held in German, a slight decrease on the October figure (42%). French (4%), Italian (2%) Dutch (1%) and now Danish (1%) have seen more marginal use.
Appeals: The Court of Appeal has continued to be busy, with 27 appeals under RoP220.1 (litera a or b); 35 appeals under RoP220.1 (litera c) and 63 appeals under RoP220.2 to date. Additionally, there has now also been one appeal heard under RoP221.
The Court of Appeal has also received 15 requests for discretionary review, 15 applications for suspensive effect and 25 applications for an order for expedition of an appeal. The first application for rehearing under RoP245 has also been filed.
IPC classes: Class H is still the most prevalent class seen before the CFI, with 85 infringement actions, 61 counterclaims and 13 revocation actions. Class A comes next (with 52, 26 and 24 respectively) while Class G (with a marginal increase to 39, 20 and two) and Class B (33, 15 and six) follow closely behind. Class C (13, seven and six), Class E (11, five and two) and F (five, four and two) have seen smaller change since October. Class D has still only seen a single infringement action thus far.
*Figures correct up to 1 January 2025.
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